The annual Dora music competition culminated in the selection of the winning song for Croatia, which will represent the country in the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest. This year's winner is the ethno group Lelek, whose song draws inspiration from Catholic Croatian women in Bosnia and Herzegovina, symbolizing faith and resistance through the imagery of cross tattoos. The song serves as a poignant reminder of the price of freedom, dignity, and equality while calling for lessons to be learned from historical wounds.

However, the competition is still haunted by the controversies of the previous year, where the audience's choice was sidelined in favor of the jury’s decision, leading to accusations of the public being 'cheated.' The public overwhelmingly favored a different song by the group Ogenj, but the jury opted for Marko Bošnjak, a decision that raised eyebrows and highlighted tensions between popular opinion and jury influences in music festivals. This incident has left lingering questions about fairness and transparency in such competitions.

As this year's Dora unfolds without the controversies of the past, the balance between audience preferences and jury power continues to be a central theme in discussions surrounding the event. While viewers seem to have embraced Lelek's song, the underlying issue of how much influence the jury should wield in deciding the outcome remains an open question, prompting debates about the future direction of music contests in Croatia and beyond.